if they think
they've not been treated on the square, they can't stop themselves.

'Take care what I say!' she breaks out, rising her voice to a scream,
and looking as if she'd jump over the bar-counter and tear the eyes out
of me. 'Why should I take care? It's you, Dick Marston, you double-faced
treacherous dog that you are, that's got a thousand pounds on your head,
that has cause to care, and you, Jim Marston, that's in the same reward,
and both of you know it. Not that I've anything against you, Jim. You're
a man, and always was. I'll say that for you.'

'And you're a woman,' groans out poor Jim. 'That's the reason you can't
hold your infernal tongue, I suppose.'

Kate had let the cat out of the bag now and no mistake. You should have
seen the drover and his men look at us when they found they had the
famous bush-rangers among them that they'd all heard so much about this
years past. Some looked pretty serious and some laughed. The drover
spoke first.

'Bush-ranger here or bush-ranger there,' he says, 'I'm going to lose a
dashed good man among cattle; and if this chattering fool of a woman had
held her tongue the pair of ye might have come on with the cattle till
they were delivered. Now I'm a man short, and haven't one as I can trust
on a pinch. I don't think any more of you, missis,' he says, 'for being
so dashed ready to give away your friends, supposing they had been on
the cross.'

But Kate didn't hear. She had fallen down in a kind of fit, and her
husband, coming in to see what the row was about, picked her up, and
stood looking at us with his mouth open.

'Look here, my man,' says I, 'your wife's taken me and this gentleman,'
pointing to Jim, 'for some people she knew before on the diggings, and
seems to have got rather excited over it. If it was worth our while to
stay here, we'd make her prove it. You'd better get her to lie down, and
advise her, when she comes to, to hold her tongue, or you might be made
to suffer by it.'

'She's a terror when she's put out, and that's God's truth,' says the
chap; and starting to drag her over to one of the bits of back bedrooms.
'It's all right, I daresay. She will keep meddling with what don't
consarn her. I don't care who yer are or what yer are. If you knowed
her afore, I expect ye'll think it best to clear while she's unsensible
like.'

'Here's a shout all round for these men here,' says I, throwing a note
on the bar. 'Never mind the change. Good-bye, chaps.